Monday, August 13, 2012

Shopping Mallcultureis fast invading our
lives , even in small cities and towns. The new locality where we have shiftedsome seven months back has mercifully no Mall
. It may be more convenient tofinds goods of daily need and use under one
roofand may also save us our ‘valuable’ time which each one of usseems to have run out of these days due to hectic schedule and racy lifestyle, but still I for one miss that personalbond that existed between thedealer/merchant/shopkeeper and the customerin good old days.

I remember my childhood , when as kids, for years wewent to a particular barber for a
haircut- and why not , as it was he whowould come to our home to give us a haircut when we were too young to sit on a high chair in the shopin front of a largemirrorandunable to absorb the unfamiliar
atmosphere of ashop or a saloon. He won’tmind walking two kilometerone
wayon footwhen a haircutfetched him only 20-25
paise . I still remember his name-
Jhania Ram.

Like wise, one Bhagwati Prasad was our dhobi for many years and myfather would endearingly call him
baretha , the meaningof the word
unknown to useven today. The grocerand the sabziwalawouldgladly offer my father a seat inside thesmall shopwheregup-shupwould go on for quite some time . I never
sawmy fatherhaggling over price with any one.

Walking around in a shopping mall with a trolly may satisfy our ego for a while, butthe pleasure of shoppingforvarious
goods from differentshopswasimmense. The personal bondiscertainly
missing in these shopping malls, however courteous theattendants may appear to be !

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

More than a month into retirement and I know not what to do now, with my
physique and mental faculties all in tact. The philosopher in me prompts me
to liken this phase to the last Act of a
drama ,which mayend soon or stretch itself even to 20-25 years. But last Act it is. It
seemsthirty five yearsof service have come to naughtwith no achievement to count or laurels to rest upon. Only I have been
able to earnsufficientpension totake care of myfinancial needs .
The words of the shayarAkbar Allahabadi
ring so true :

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Born this day in 1932, Meena
Kumari, the greatBollywood actress of
yore , due to penury and povertywas
forced to act as a child artiste atthe
age of six. This also happened as a quirk of fate , as plain looking Mahazabeen
Bano, as she was named then,was not considered
even worthy ofentering the film line,
by her father .It was her mother who took her to some producer/ directorAs luck would have it , her talent was
spotted and her career took off.She
acted in manywell known films , like
Miss Mary, Sahib Biwi aur Ghulam , Azaad , Kohinoor, Dil Apna aur Preet Parayi &
many others , and last but not the
least, Pakeezah whichproved her swan
songbut also immortalized her.All the songs of the filmbecame hits and were
played all over .Perhaps this was the best that Kamal Amrohi , her separated husband and also Director of the film could have done for her. Frustration and loneliness proved too much for
her and she took todrinking .It is no
secret that while shooting forPakeezah,
Meena Kumari ,due to illness, was not
able to speak and oneSadhana Khote
dubbed for her. This hastened her end as she died in March
1973 at the relatively young age of
forty. If Dilip Kumar is the Tragedy King
ofHindi cinema, the crown forTragedy Queen would certainly go to Meena
Kumari .